Raul Ibanez apologized for every traffic cone he ever stole from a Miami construction site.

He promised they were put to good use.

In the back of his car at all times during his tenure at Miami Sunset Senior High School, Ibanez carried a bat, five baseballs and a cone tall enough to serve as a tee. Anytime he came across a chain-link fence, he was ready for batting practice.

“My buddies knew I wasn’t going to a party until I got my swings in,” Ibanez said, “That was just a discipline of doing what’s necessary to attain your goal.”

Twenty-two years into his professional baseball career, the facilities have long since been upgraded, but nothing trumps the importance of the discipline Ibanez credits for making him the oldest active player in the major leagues.

The Angels’ designated hitter turns 42 on June 2.

His neighbor in the locker room, Mike Trout, is nearly 19 years younger.

If Ibanez has a secret formula, he hides it well. Aside from some changes in his diet — roughly 80 percent of his food isn’t processed and can be “fished, hunted, picked or pulled” — it’s difficult to explain the extreme longevity.

“He has a routine that works for him,” Angels athletic trainer Adam Nevala said. “We just try to stay out of his way.”

Ibanez isn’t simply a hanger-on squeezing every last ounce out of his career. The free agent was acquired in the offseason to be an everyday player.

Were he to experience any significant decline, Ibanez said he is prepared to call it a career. The Angels are betting what could amount to $5 million that won’t happen this year.

“People used to say, ‘When you hit 30, certain things will happen and when you hit 35, this will happen and when you hit 40, this will happen,’”Ibanez said. “I’m still waiting to see what all that means.”

“Don’t get me wrong. Some days you’re tired. I recognize that I’m 41 ... Those are the days that you grind and you fight through it and fake it and tell yourself how good you feel. And it works.”

Last year with Seattle, he posted the third-highest home run total of his career. Ibanez collected 29 home runs and 65 RBIs in 2013 and already has three home runs and 12 RBIs entering Friday’s nine-game road trip beginning in Detroit.

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Thanks to the thumb injury that could sideline Josh Hamilton for two months, Ibanez unexpectedly became an even more crucial piece of the Angels’ puzzle. He has assumed Hamilton’s cleanup spot in the lineup for four of the six games since the injury.

Rising to the occasion is how Ibanez made a name for himself. He is the only player in baseball history with three home runs in the ninth inning or later in a single postseason thanks to his heroics for the 2012 Yankees.

Nine games into his first season with the Angels, his clutch reputation gained another piece of verification. Ibanez hit a game-tying, three-run home run in the ninth inning of an eventual 13-inning loss to the Mets on Saturday.

The home run was his 2,000th career hit, making him one of just 12 players with 300 home runs and 2,000 hits.

He doesn’t credit the clutch hitting to any savvy gained in his 18 major league seasons, simply a desire to be at the plate when the game is on the line that was the same at 21 and 41.

As for his longevity, there are a couple of sensible theories.

Ibanez has only slightly tweaked his workout habits over the years, but his diet began a considerable turnaround following sports hernia surgery in 2009.

He gave up dairy products and gluten the first week of his rehabilitation. He felt so good he hasn’t had any since.

“I haven’t eaten a good slice of pizza in four years,” he said.

Ibanez’s diet has since evolved further, but there is another obvious factor in the length of his career. He didn’t have 500 at-bats in a season until he was 30. After the Mariners drafted him out of Miami-Dade Community College in the 37th round of the 1992 draft, he only surpassed 200 at-bats once in five major league seasons before joining the Royals in 2001.

He spent 10 of his first 13 seasons with the Mariners, but the Angels are his fourth team in the last four seasons. The name on the front of his jersey may have become inconsistent, but his production hasn’t.

“This game tells you when you need to retire,” Angels first baseman Albert Pujols said. “You can put a goal in your mind that you want to play for so long, but the game will dictate it in the end. Raul just works hard and that’s why he’s here.”